NEWS
CONSERVATIVE ACTIVISTS
PROTEST LOCAL MEDIA
ACTIVIST
LERT
• A beach clean-up day in the Florence area is planned for
10:30 am Sunday, Nov. 25, by the Surfrider Foundation. See
oregon.surfrider.org/events or email jonandjaine@bmi.net or
call (800) 743-SURF.
• A petition From Cascadia Wildlands at wkly.ws/1e0
urges the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to maintain federal
protections for wolves in the Pacific Northwest. Wolves, even
those with collars, are being hunted and killed in Northwestern
states. See more information at the Forest Web of Cottage
Grove Facebook page.
• Quaker peace and justice activist Peg Morton will sign
her new book Feeling Light Within, I Walk from 4 to 6 pm
Sunday, Nov. 25, at Tsunami Books, 2585 Willamette; and
distribution of pre-purchased books will be from 2 to 5 pm
Saturday, Dec. 1, at 510 Van Buren St. Morton can be reached
at 342-2914.
• EmX funding still has more public process to go through
and the deadline for written testimony is Dec. 2 for pending
action by the Central Lane Metropolitan Planning Organization.
The MPO will be looking at whether to earmark Oregon Lottery
funds to help finance EmX expansion. Send comments to
mpo@lcog.org
• EWEB commissioners will hold the second of two public
hearings on proposed rate increases at 7:30 pm Tuesday, Dec.
4, at EWEB’s North Building. The rate hikes for both water and
electricity would take effect in 2013. The electric rate hike
would be 4 percent and would go into effect next May. The
water hike would be 20 percent and would go into effect in
February. For more information on rates, see www.eweb.org/
rates2013
PHOTO BY AMY SCHNEIDER
TEA PARTY UPSET
OVER LOCAL MEDIA
BENGHAZI OMISSIONS
BY PAUL NEEVEL
A downpour of rain and a lack of media attention did
nothing to stop a group of protesters from picketing at
7th and Pearl in downtown Eugene on Saturday, Nov. 16.
Members of the Tea Party-related Lane County 9-12 Proj-
ect and other conservative groups say it’s the lack of local
media attention that has led them to protest local media.
The activists decked out in rain jackets and umbrellas
gathered to express their dissatisfaction with the media’s
coverage of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
“It’s about allowing Benghazi to happen and the lack of
response since it happened,” says Glen Stutzman, a mem-
ber of the 15 protesters who represented the larger group
Conservative Call to Action. “It wasn’t until the Petraeus
scandal that this started getting traction in the media, but
it’s going in the wrong direction.”
Stutzman says that he is looking for more balanced cov-
erage of the issue. Fellow protester Darrell Blaser, a former
engineer, says he feels that Obama is blaming an anti-Mus-
lim video when he should come out with the truth. After
the events in Benghazi, Blaser says he “wouldn’t mind see-
ing impeachment proceedings for Obama if he covered it
up just for the election.”
Bob Sowden, organizer of the protest, says that since
larger media outlets are not reporting the issue, it’s up to
local media to respond. He organized two other Saturday
morning protests this month, one at The Register-Guard
and another at KMTR, and he says they may hold another
protest after Thanksgiving, depending on the outcome of
the Benghazi hearings. KEZI did a brief story on the R-G
protest. An emailed press release sent out the night before
the R-G protest said in part, “We are imploring the local
news sources in Eugene, Oregon to do the right thing and
give a full accounting of the possible criminal disregard for
the lives of our military and our ambassador. The facts are
available, why are you not reporting them. You are silent
on this matter. We will not be silent.”
Most local media outlets don’t report on international
news themselves and run stories from the larger media out-
lets they are affi liated with. The R-G’s coverage of inter-
national issues, such as the attack on the U.S. consulate in
Benghazi, primarily comes from the Associated Press and
The New York Times.
On Nov. 15, Eugene peace activists held a vig-
il called “In Solidarity with Gaza” at 7th and Pearl
in response to the current Isreali-Gaza confl ect.
— Amy Schneider and Camilla Mortensen
HAPPENING PEOPLE
MECCA, the Materials Exchange Center for Community Arts,
is expanding its store hours at 449 Willamette St., next to the
Amtrak station. MECCA will now be open afternoons and early
evenings, and will be celebrating its new hours with a public
ceremony at 11 am Saturday, Dec. 1. Officiating will be MECCA
Executive Director Jija Adrade and Slug Queen Sadie Slimy
Stitches. The nonprofit store acts as a clearing house for
scraps and discards that can be used creatively and sold at
low prices to artists, teachers and others.
The Noli Italian Café closed its 5th Street Public Market
location at the end of September and reopened Oct. 16 at 769
Monroe, next to Sweet Life Patisserie, under a new name, Noli
Ristorante Italiano. Both names are used in websites and
Facebook pages. Owners are Davide Mulone & Maggie
McDonald. “The new location gives us an opportunity to set our
own hours, hang local artists, have music or wine tastings and
just generally represent ourselves in an amazing, vibrant
neighborhood we now call home,” says McDonald. The new
phone number is 844-1663.
Eugene-based Bloom Paper Goods has launched a direct-
to-customer, photo greeting card website and card generator
at bloompapergoods.com The business offers both printed
and digital products designed for “tech-savvy, fashion-
oriented women,” according to Bloom Creative Director Brianna
Bulski. The company hopes to expand in the near future.
A new legal assistance program for low-income households
facing foreclosure is now available thanks to a collaboration
between the Oregon Housing and Community Services and
Legal Aid Services of Oregon. A Eugene office is being set up,
but for now, get information at oregonhomeownersupport.gov
or call (503) 227-0198.
HIV Alliance in Eugene is seeking donations to help repair
unanticipated leaking siding and structural damage at its
building at 1966 Garden Way. The damage is estimated to cost
about $7,500 to repair. The nonprofit has set aside $1,500 and
is expecting a donation of $3,000 to come in soon. “We need
an additional $3,000 to finish the job,” says Executive Director
Diane Lang. Call 342-5088 or email nryan@hivalliance.org to
help.
The Oregon Country Fair is now accepting endowment
fund grant applications for 2013. Deadline is Jan. 18, grant
information can be found at oregoncountryfair.org and grant
winners will be announced March 11.
JOAN CONNOLLY & CORINNA & DAVID ADEE
An avid student of music in Medford schools, David Adee played in the Rogue Valley Symphony at age 13 and had a
20-year career as a French horn player, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lifelong gardener Joan Connolly started a
landscaping business when she moved to Eugene from the Puget Sound area in 1985. The pair met at a contra dance soon
after he arrived in 1998 to pursue teaching credentials, and they married two years later. They adopted newborn Corinna in
2005. Adee has taught music in Eugene schools since 1999. “I’m most well-known for marimba bands at Camas Ridge,” he
says. “That went on for eight years.” He still visits Camas Ridge for marimba practice, but Adee is currently working at River
Road School. Four years ago, just as the family was looking to move from Connolly’s small house on Oakleigh Lane, her
“dream property,” one street over on McClure Lane, came up for sale. “We were ‘called’ to buy it,” she says. They got family
help to buy the larger house on 2.7 acres of meadow adjacent to the city’s Riverfront Park. After study, they adopted the
collaborative model of development known as cohousing, featuring a large common house in a pocket neighborhood of
cottages and gardens. Still in the planning stage, Oakleigh Meadow Cohousing has 11 committed households and hopes to
attract others. Learn more at oakleighmeadow.org.
eugeneweekly.com • November 21, 2012
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